Under the scorching Shire Valley sun, giant centre pivots now turn slowly across 600 hectares of sugarcane at Phata. But what’s powering them is the issue. Not hydro. Not the national grid but sunlight.
For years, Phata Sugarcane Outgrowers Cooperative depended on Escom 24/7. When the power went, the crops suffered. Now, a 648-kilowatt solar plant has changed that equation.
Extension Coordinator for Phata, Tione Malizani, lived the blackouts.
On Thursday officials from the Ministries of Agriculature and Energy visited Phata Sugarcane Outgrowers Coorporative in Chikwawa District to appreciatethe impact of solar system on irrigation.
“Being in the Shire Valley we mostly depend on irrigation for production and that depend on Escom 24/7 but power has not been reliable. The cost has been very high, up to 134 million kwacha a month,” he said.
With support from GIZ, Phata installed solar for both phase 1 and phase 2.
“Because of this challenge we approached GIZ and they assisted us with funding for the installation of solar for both phase 1 and phase 2. With the coming in of solar system we are able to monitor how much energy we are producing and how much energy we are using, both from grid and solar,” Malizani said.
The results: “We have realised that we are using 70 per cent solar and 30 per cent Escom grid. We hope that bills will be lower thereby increasing the income we get.”
The system produces about 648 kilowatts. It’s also built for climate shocks.
“Phata will be resilient because the system has been designed to survive even during floods,” Malizani said.
And there’s a bonus. During low irrigation periods, excess power goes back to the grid.
“The energy that we are producing at the moment is more than what we may require at times because during the harvesting season there are some areas where we stop irrigating and because of that we will have excess energy which we will be selling to Escom,” he said.
The impact is spilling into homes and classrooms.
Head Teacher for Kalima Full Primary School, Alex Sovera, said solar has ended blackouts for learners.
“Our learners are able to come and study. The power has improved the learners performance and solar is good because there is no blackout,” he said.
Deputy Director of Irrigation Services responsible for Management Services, Christopher Bodole, says this is exactly the kind of shift Malawi needs to fight food insecurity.
“The use of sustainable energy in irrigation by Shire valley farmers can help fight food insecurity. The use of solar powered irrigation system will improve food security,” Bodole said during a field visit.
He pointed to the centre pivots as a model for the future.
“Here we have seen the centre pivots which are doing irrigation at large scale which is in line with the Malawi we want. If you look at the pillars you will see that at the centre there is an issue of commercialisation which can only be handled by large scale irrigation systems like the ones under the Phata Sugarcane Outgrowers Cooperative,” he said.
Bodole added that the move to solar is deliberate and that the Ministry of Agriculture, through its policy on Sustainable Irrigation Development and Sustainable Irrigation Management, is pushing farmers and investors away from unreliable power.
“There are several issues which we are doing including guiding investors and implementers to consider solar power which is sustainable, but also to consider large scale irrigation farming so that we should be able to improve in terms of production,” Bodole said.
“We are also looking at empowering irrigators by building their capacity in terms of how they are going to manage and operate the systems so that they can be long lasting and more sustainable.”
He also urged farmers to change mindset.
“I urge the cooperative to no longer take their farming business as usual but consider it as a business so that they are able to have a proper vision,”he said.
With El Niño looming, the urgency is higher.
“Looking at the current situation when we are anticipating that we are going to have El Niño phenomenon within the country we are now shifting from rain-fed agriculture to sustainable irrigation development and management in line with the National Irrigation Policy,” Bodole said.
Energy Officer from the Ministry of Energy, Alinafe Kasinja, said solar solves a problem hydro cannot: reliability at the farm gate.
“Initially they have been using Escom power but due to frequent power outages they were losing a lot as their canes were drying up,” Kasinja said.
“With the coming in of the solar plants they have been able to pump water and irrigate their cane even in the absence of Escom power.”
He commended GIZ through its Energising Development, EnDev programme.
“This is commendable and I encourage GIZ to also replicate this to other schemes if the opportunity is there,” he added.
Unlike hydro, which is vulnerable to drought, siltation and national load-shedding, solar is decentralized. It works where the crops are, without waiting for dams to fill or transmission lines to be fixed.
This project speaks directly to Enabler 2 of Malawi 2063: Productive Sectors. The agenda calls for commercialized agriculture and reliable energy as engines of wealth creation. Phata is delivering both.
It also advances multiple Sustainable Development Goals like SDG 2 about Zero Hunger, SDG 7 about affordable and clean energy by replacing expensive, unreliable grid power with renewables and
SDG 13 on climate action by building resilience to drought and reducing emissions.
Phata started in 2011 and now has 1,193 members – 589 women and 604 men. It manages 800 hectares, with 600 under sugarcane and the rest for diversification.
The solar systems were installed with funding from the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, GEAPP, under the Catalysing Distributed Energy Solutions for Agriculture component, implemented by GIZ, Energising Development, EnDev.
As Malawi stares down climate shocks, the message from the Shire Valley is clear, sustainable energy is an assurance.
